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"I have never welcomed the weakening of family ties by politics or pressure" - Nelson Mandela."He who travels for love finds a thousand miles no longer than one" - Japanese proverb."Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence." - Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights."When people's love is divided by law, it is the law that needs to change". - David Cameron.

Friday, 21 February 2014

Love Letters to the Home Office

Love
Letters to the Home Office is a book of short stories written by
people who are separated by the UK's 2012 Family Visa Law.

The law, with its artificially high financial
requirement, means that people in the UK who earn less than £18,600 per year
have different human rights to the rest of the UK population: these people do
not have the right to live with their wives, husbands, partners and families
from overseas (a right granted to all of us in Article 8 of the European
Convention on Human Rights). While the rule is still in place, thousands of
families are separated, unable to live together. We are documenting
the extraordinary love stories of these separated families, and tell the stories
of love that crosses borders, oceans and seas.

Are
you affected by the law?

Are
you, or have you been, separated from your loved one(s)?

Would
you like to take part in this book?

Love
Letters to the Home Office is a collection of stories
of love: of extraordinary moments in extraordinary relationships. Please consider that more than
one person in your family may want to submit a story.

For
many
people featured in the book, English won't be your first language.
Don't worry about that at all. Just send us what you can, and if we
need to, we will put you in touch with a ghost writer who will work with
you to
perfect your story.

We are currently looking for stories of the
following lengths:

* 500 words

* 250 words

* Paragraphs - little moments anywhere between
40 and 100 words long

You won't have enough room to write your whole
family or relationship history in the story. Please focus on the moment or event that you want to share
with us, and let the other details (which country your family member is living
in, or how long you have been married, etc) be included as they naturally come
up as you tell us the love story.

If you are stuck, and you don't know what to
write about, these prompts may be useful to you:

- how does it feel when you see them at the
airport?

- tell us the creative ways you celebrate your
anniversaries while you are apart

- how their face lights up when they see you on
Skype...

- the places that you have travelled to in
order to see each other

- how it feels to simply drink a coffee
together, or cook together, at last!

Please include a phone number that we can
contact you on, to talk to you about your story.

The closing date for submissions is 8th March
2014, and we encourage you to send yours as soon as possible for the best
chance of being included in the book.

We look forward to hearing from you!

We
encourage you to write a short story that focuses on beautiful moments that you
and your loved one(s) share.
You don't need to write about the unfairness of the law: that is crystal
clear in the context of the book being published, and we are much more
interested in hearing your love
story. The same is true of the
Home Office: most of us who have gone through the visa application process have
experience of the system not having integrity and not working. You don't need to write about this,
unless it gives specific context to your love story. Word counts are very limited, so don't waste yours on anger
- tell us your extraordinary tales of love!